A London court will consider later today if Uber is “fit and proper” to hold an operator license in the capital.
The taxi app company will make its case at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in a hearing expected to last several days.
Last September, Transport for London refused to renew Uber’s licence on grounds of public safety and security.
Uber said it has since made significant changes, such as improving procedures for reporting criminal actions.
Various media outlets have quoted a memo reportedly sent by Uber to Transport for London, in which it said that as many as 1,148 London-licensed Uber drivers had been accused of “category A” offences such as sexual incidents, stalking and dangerous driving.
The court will take the changes made by Uber into account and decide whether it is now fit to hold an operator licence.
The original reasons for the refusal were outlined in a 21-page document.
Uber has been allowed to carry on operating in London while awaiting to appeal.
“I know we got things wrong and that we have more work to do. But I promise Londoners we will keep listening and improving as Uber moves forward in a new direction,” Uber’s UK general manager, Tom Elvidge, said in May.
A kinder, gentler and humbler Uber – that is the image the taxi app company hopes to project in court this week as it battles for its future in what is one of its most important markets.
It will stress that a lot has changed at a business that once prided itself on confronting local regulators in a whirlwind of creative disruption.
A new boss Dara Khosrowshahi came to London and actually said sorry, and in February new measures were announced to cooperate with the police over allegations of driver misconduct – Transport for London’s main concern when it refused a new licence.
The fact that Uber is seeking a new licence for just eighteen months rather than the full five years it expected last autumn – and that it appears to have been agreeing with TfL a list of conditions it will have to meet – shows that it accepts it is still on probation.
Source: BBC
